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Avocado Recipes ♥ Alphabet of Vegetables

July 30, 2015

This Veggie Evangelist came late to the "Avocado Craze" but is catching up, fast! Here you'll find a whole collection of avocado facts and seasonal avocado recipes, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. And of course, guacamole recipes too!

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Avocado 101: THE BASICSPronounced [ah-vuh-KAH-doe]. Plural of Avocado. Here's how to remember the plural of avocado, tee hee. "One avocado is good, enough avocados for guacamole is even better." Other Names for Avocado. Also called Avocado Pear, Alligator Pear (it's that nubbly skin), Butter Fruit. The Season. California avocados are harvested December through August, exactly when depends on the variety. Since avocados are imported from Mexico, avocados are easily available year-round thus veiling the apparence of season. Still, "late season" avocados are richer than "early season" avocados, it might be one way to tell! New-World Origins. Avocados originated in the jungles of Central America, that makes them a so-called "New World" food. Those enormous pits inside? They're the food source for new avocado trees that must fight to find light in a dense jungle. [5] Some theorize that the dense-calorie fruit adapted to appeal to large animals with high calorie requirements. [1] Botanically Speaking. Like tomatoes, avocados are fruits not vegetables even if we treat them them as vegetables. Avocados belong to the laurel family, the trees go back and forth, producing bumper crops of 200 - 300 avocados one year and smaller crops the next. New Word! "Climateric" Avocados are a "climateric" fruit, this means that avocados ripen on the tree but soften for eating off the tree, after they're picked. (Other common climateric fruits? Apples, bananas, apricots and tomatoes.) [1] Ripeness vs Softness. It's easy to think of a hard avocado as "unripe". Instead, it's actually ripe but just needs some time off the tree to soften for eating. How to Select an Avocado. Who's seen someone (or is guilty of? oops, me too) squeeze an avocado in the grocery store, then put it back? We're looking for an avocado that is slightly soft, that "gives" slightly to a little pressure. But when we test for softness with our fingers, even gently, our fingers will leave "fingerings" (internal bruises) on the avocado, an invisible brown spot for the next unwitting avocado buyer. Instead, close your palm around the avocado to test for softness. My grocery store helps by selling individual "soft enough to eat" avocados in the top basket, successively less soft ones in the lower baskets. Still, I always buy more avocados than needed, because even when an avocado appears fine on the outside, it can be brown or mucky inside. I have good luck with bags of avocados from both Trader Joe's and Sam's Club – perhaps because they're less subject to careless squeezing by shoppers. How to Soften (vs Ripen) Avocados Faster. First, who knew?! Avocados soften from the blossom end to the stem end. [1] Waiting for avocados to soften is tricky, especially if you need to make guacamole, say, on a particular day. (1) Open on the counter, an avocado might soften in a couple of days but often might take a week, too. (2) To speed the softening, place the avocado in a paper bag on the counter away from direct sunlight; (3) to speed it even more, add a banana or an apple to the bag. (4) Once an avocado is soft, move the avocados to the refrigerator to slow down further softening; they'll hold for a good week. But don't put hard avocados in the fridge, they won't soften there. Pet Poison. Yikes, avocados are poisonous for cats, dogs and horses. [2] Haas Avocados. The most common commercial avocado is the Haas, that's the pebbly, lizard-skinned avocado that makes up 95% (I know, 95%!) of the U.S. market. In the States alone, in 2014 we consumed 4.25 billion avocados (do the math, that's more than one avocado per person every single month! Still, that's, um, peanuts, compared to Mexico, where it's one avocado per person every single week.) That's up 2x since 2005 and 4x since 2000. The increase is due not to demand, per se, but to supply: trade restrictions were lifted, allowing imports to supplement a fairly limited supply of California avocado supplies. Today? Some 85% of US-consumed avocados are imported, primarily from Mexico. [4] Today, avocado trees no longer grow in the wild, they're all cultivated. [5] Avocado Monoculture. But here's the thing. There are other avocado varieties but I bet you, like me, have never heard of them. Anyone familiar with the Reed, Bacon, Rincon or Pinkerton avocados? Me either. Occasionally, I do come across lower-fat smooth-skinned "Fuerte" (also called "Florida") avocados but because they're usually picked too young, lack the rich, buttery taste we've come to associate with avocados. (These avocados also have about half the fat as Haas avocados.) So Haas it is. Deborah Madison calls Haas avocados the "Red Delicious" of avocados: valued for pretty-good flavor and ease of shipping but nonetheless, an ignore-all-other dominating monoculture. [6] I suspect that our love for avocados will mean that before too long, we'll see new avocado varieties from small growers. About That Pit. Yeah, it's big, by weight more than 20 percent of a whole avocado. In fact, in the 1977 movie "Oh, God!", George Burns quipped that making avocado seeds so big was a mistake. [5] Unless is gets dried out, that seed is alive and ready to put down roots and push sunward to become another tall, leafy avocado tree. With seven years of patience in a warm climate, you can grow your own avocado tree from one of those seeds, this is a great tutorial from a fellow food blogger, The Hungry Mouse, plus many tips and hints from other avocado growers in the comments. Some people say that an avocado pit will prevent a bowl of guacamole from turning color: oops, that didn't work for me. Why Avocados Turn Brown. Once avocado flesh is exposed to air, the flesh will turn brown within an hour or so. To prevent this (or at least slow down the browning), drizzle lemon juice or lime juice over the open flesh. When there's half an avocado left over, I make Make-Ahead Smoothies! Special Diets. Avocados are gluten-free, paleo approved, South Beach diet approved (all three phases), Weight Watchers friendly and Whole30 approved. (Naturally, specific preparations matter to each of these eating regimens.) Natural Pairings. Pair avocado with citrus (lime, especially but also lemon, orange and grapefruit) and other fruits like mango and tomato; vegetables like bell peppers, corn and cucumbers; meats like bacon and crab; herbs like basil and cilantro; heat from chile peppers like jalapeño. [3] And you know, toast, like here. Sources. Personal experience and accumulated learning. Also the most-wonderful [1] On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee, [2] Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka and [3] The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. Also [4] Washington Post 1/22/15 and [5] The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hansen and [6] Local Flavors by Deborah Madison. I also recommend a lovely blog, Mimi Avocado by a woman whose family raises avocados commercially in California.

What's your favorite way to eat avocados? or what avocado recipe did you hope to find here? And hey, I am still in the hunt for "my" way to make avocado toast, if yours is great, I'd love to try it! Leave me a quick note in the comments or via recipes@kitchen-parade.com! ~Alanna

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna

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